£20m arts donor quits Britain over 'punishing' non-dom tax

A leading donor to the arts is leaving Britain after launching a scathing attack on the Government's £30,000-a-year 'non-dom' tax.

Carol Colburn Hogel, who has given £20million to the arts in Scotland, is returning to America after claiming that foreign donors are being "punished" by Chancellor Alistair Darling.

Ms Hogel, a former concert pianist, has a home in Edinburgh, and has lived in Scotland for more than 20 years.

The mother-of-three, who is originally from Chicago, runs the Dunard Fund, a charitable trust funded by her family's business.

In a letter to The Scotsman newspaper, Ms Hogel criticises Mr Darling's controversial tax for non-domiciled foreigners living in Britain.

She writes: "After 24 years of working and paying taxes in the UK, I am heading back to North America, where an individual with involvement in, and charitable contributions to, visual arts and classical music is valued, not punished."

Ms Hogel's friends and supporters were said to have written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Mr Darling on her behalf about the tax, but had not received a reply.

In the letter, the philanthropist also criticised Scotsman writer Robert McNeil. Mr McNeil recently tackled the issue of the tax in his humorous column, stating: "The rich are leaving and good ruddy riddance to them."

In her letter, Ms Hogel adds: "...neither the sincere gratitude and ongoing needs of such organisations such as the National Galleries of Scotland, the National Library, the RSNO, all the UK's major opera companies, the Edinburgh International Festival, SCO (Scottish Chamber Orchestra), RSPB etc, nor my emotional and intellectual attachment to them, can outweigh the destructively spiteful, philistine attitude of journalists like you."

She added that it had been a "difficult and in some ways painful" decision to leave the UK.

In 2006 the Dunard Fund donated £500,000 to the Edinburgh International Festival to help clear its debts.

Major donations have also been made to the National Galleries of Scotland and Scottish Opera.